Review of Todd Rundgren: Live In San Francisco

Introduction

Todd Rundgren is a musical pioneer, not only working in a diverse range of musical styles, but also experimenting with video, software and the internet. In a career spanning 30 years he has amassed a phenomenal body of work (he`d think nothing of releasing 2 albums in a year) which will span genres from prog-rock to folky pop. Not everything he has done has been good but most of it has been interesting.

This DVD captures Rundgren playing live in San Francisco and interesting it`s not.

Video

Video is a full frame NTSC transfer and it is pretty poor. The image looks as though gauze has been draped over it - it is soft, smeared and blotchy. Everything is indistinct. Maybe the film-maker was trying for some sort of lo-fi aesthetic but I doubt it. Just poor.

Audio

Worse than the video. Whether it`s DD 5.1, DTS or DD 2.0, the sound on this disc is a murky, messy racket. It sounds as if the band is playing underwater. Vocals are a muddy mumble. I have rarely heard a worse sounding DVD.

Rundgren is a musical magpie and the set list is as diverse as you would expect. However, there was no way I was going to sit through a 90 minute ear bashing. A random sampling of 4 songs was enough. Rundgren`s performances seemed decent enough but few people will give it a chance.

Features

None.

Conclusion

This is one of the worst DVDs I have come across. As if the poor image quality and dearth of extras weren`t bad enough, the appalling sound is the clincher. There`s no excuse for it. Image DVDs are usually have excellent sound and I am surprised that this slipped past their quality control.

Rundgren opens the DVD with "I Hate My Frickin` ISP". I`ll bet he hates this frickin` DVD too.

For Rundgren completists only.